REMEMBERING MILDRED PITTS WALTER

The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), the children’s book world, and young readers worldwide mourn the passing of author and friend, Mildred Pitts Walter. She was 104 years old, and was still writing for children.

Born in 1922 in a small, segregated town in Louisiana, she eventually made her way to New Orleans and enrolled in Southern University. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English. In 1944, she moved to Los Angeles, where she worked briefly as a school clerk.

She married Earl Walter in 1947, and they both became active in civil rights. Walter, who passed away in 1965, became the national vice chair of CORE (Congress Of Racial Equity).

Mildred was an early member of SCBWI and frequently spoke at SCBWI events throughout the many years of her children’s publishing career.

Her passion for children’s literature was born when she became a teacher at a predominately African American school in Los Angeles. Disheartened that the only book in the school library featuring an African American child was Ezra Jack Keats, “The Snowy Day”, she wrote the publisher out of sheer frustration, requesting that more books feature characters who looked like the students in her classroom. The publisher wrote back, “Write them”. And that she did.

Her first book, “Lillie of Watts”, was published in 1969. Eventually, she went on to write more than 20 others, including “Justin and the Best Biscuits in the World” (1986) for which she won The Coretta Scott King Award. In 1996, she was inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame, and she received the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Honors for “Second Daughter: The Story of a Slave Girl”.

SCBWI Co-Founder and current SCBWI Impact and Legacy Fund Managing Director, Lin Oliver, had this to say about her longtime friend, Mildred Pitts Walter, “Mildred was a longtime member of the SCBWI Advisory Council, offering her wisdom about the necessity of representation and inclusion to all of our conversations. As an author, she was a pioneer in writing stories for and about black children in everyday modern life, not as historical figures. Her books changed the course of children’s literature.”

We mourn her loss while celebrating her long and productive life. The SCBWI was fortunate to have her as a colleague and friend for so many wonderful years. She will be missed, but long honored and never forgotten.